Beyond the tired follow your dreams trope there's probably some supplementary jazz in there about support networks or lack there of for individuals trying to adhere to the routine life style devoid of interesting and engaging stimulus, when they're entirely aware of how fucking shit it is but feel helpless to rectify the situation and engage in imaginary escapism as some kind of coping mechanism, also a bit of a frown about disconnected parents; little fellas mum's happy as larry hes plodding along the correct path and perhaps entirely oblivious to the true situation.

I hope you make some more.

Last edited by Ragingmoose on Tue May 13, 2014 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

maybe some framing in such mundane manner combined with some classic dutch angles or something

just found the shots made for quite long "masters" style cuts, which again is fine but in the context of low dialogue perhaps some more use of jarring angles and framing could heighten the sense of discomfort without breaking the feeling of the ordinary

also adds a sense of pacing which would have been my major complaint, pacing was deliberately plodding but u gotta watch it with that!

We shot this about 18 months ago, the idea (in an early form) came to me about 4 years ago. I have enough distance with it now and learnt enough from making it, that I think I have a good idea of its faults.

Obviously, its a cliched premise. In a sense that's the point... I'm not going to say it's deliberately cliched, but it certainly knows that it is cliched, if that makes sense. I still cringe, though, every time the alarm clock shot plays. The whole concept was to take the cliched cubicle farm setting and simply swap out the salaryman protagonist with a young boy in a spacesuit, while keeping a straight face.

Yes the pacing is slow, which again is of course deliberate, but yes it is too slow for what it is. That's the main fault.

The very 'straight' framing is partly because that's simply my personal aesthetic, and also because it is emphasising the "straight-faced" way of dealing with the situation. The key shot in the film is the tracking shot down the hallway, in which we follow behind the boy (at this point still not entirely sure what is happening) and then when he reaches the desk we hang back and observe from afar, once the mundane desk job is revealed. The camera travelling with the character makes us identify with him (thats film directing 101) but after that we just kinda hang back and watch the absurd situation unfold. The sound design reinforces this, during the tracking shot everything is very science fiction, but we cut somewhat jarringly to naturalism in the boardroom. And not coincidentally, the cut into the boardroom is when the concept fully clicks into place for a lot of people.

I didn't quite reach what I was aiming for. It was meant to start optimistic, quirky and funny, following this kid on his big adventure! It's his first day at work! And he's wearing a spacesuit! How RANDOM xD!! *holds up spork* And then you gradually realise what's going on and as it becomes more absurd and jarring, you're like "Hang on... that's actually kind of sad..." and it just gets more and more bleak until the ending kicks you in the balls. I didn't quite achieve the cute funny factor at the start of the film, instead the whole film from the start is kind of distant, absurd, and odd.